Comments for SHUmanities

Comment on Banned Books Week (A Day No Pigs Would Die) by patrickgavin

patrickgavin — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:46:38 +0000

Hi Sarah,

Indeed, this is a great book. I’m in no way advocating that it be banned; quite the opposite, actually. In my banned books week posts I am trying to celebrate books that have been banned in various places in the past and those books that are often still banned today. From the American Library Association’s web site on Banned Books Week:

“BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them.”

Comment on Banned Books Week (A Day No Pigs Would Die) by sarah herlitz

sarah herlitz — Thu, 07 May 2009 03:24:09 +0000

i feel that this book is one of the greatest books out there because it shows what people went through to survive back then. for you to ban this book is wrong. we need to understand what it was like then and what we need to do in our hard times.

Comment on Banned Books Week (A Day No Pigs Would Die) by Miriam

Miriam — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 19:31:00 +0000

I agree this book is deffinetly needed for the young adults today. The book A Day NO Pigs would Die has some good old fahioned family values in it. Kids and adultd these days need to remember those and get back to those values. If you really dont pay attention to the littleest details in the book, that they challenged ; it is a vey usefull book for us all.

Comment on Google Books Now, Yeah! by Bonnie Figgatt

Bonnie Figgatt — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:26:00 +0000

Patrick, you are so right that this has large implications and will take a while to sort out…
It sounds like Google is about to become a mega-vendor (or the mega-vendor) of e-books, at least the in-copyright ones.
Also, Harvard apparently won’t be participating in this part of the Google endeavor. According to the Harvard Crimson (10/30/08), University Library Director Robert C. Darnton ’60 said “… the settlement contains too many potential limitations on access to and use of the books …” and further, that “The settlement provides no assurance that the prices charged for access will be reasonable…”
It will be very interesting to see where this goes, and what the other universities involved will do. It does seem that the scanning of out-of-copyright works (in which Harvard is participating) is the more broadly and deeply valuable part of this work, especially if it proves less vulnerable to cost and access limitations.

Comment on Banned Books Week (and tango makes three?) by Alyssa

Alyssa — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 17:36:21 +0000

Yeah… this doesn’t surprise me. I love the lady who was so against this book being read to her children and then followed with a lecture about God’s fiery wrath, ’cause that’s SO much better.

Comment on why humanities? by maria61

maria61 — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 05:39:10 +0000

One question I like to pose to the humanities class is “Why do all college curriculums require study outside of your major? Why do we like to see technology students study the humanities?” Typical answers include a desire to produce well rounded graduates, or to get more of our money, but I like to let the question develop over the semester to see if any deeper answers emerge. I believe some of my students really start to get it when I read some of their comments and responses to some of the art that we have been experiencing.

Comment on my first post by patrickgavin

patrickgavin — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 05:33:29 +0000

Thanks for being my first commenter! It’s fitting that my first comment comes from Pittsburgh.

You know, I think you’re right about so many students through the years partaking in higher learning for the tangible ends, especially post WWII (what with the intro of the GI Bill and the greater availability of the opportunity for higher learning).

To go along with this line of thinking…maybe it’s also just easier to see students not paying attention…a sea of students’ laptops open, with webbrowsers pointing to a Facebook page is more noticeable than doodling en mass.

Comment on my first post by Leigh Anne Vrabel

Leigh Anne Vrabel — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 15:27:52 +0000

I don’t think you’re asking too much, and you’ve certainly given readers a lot to respond to!

For what it’s worth, I think many students through the years have pursued learning solely for the tangible ends (job, salary, car, nice house, etc.). Their views are just more visible and audible now, thanks to the technology. Those of us who value different models of learning simply have to use the new technologies as tools to model alternatives. Of course, I say “simply” as if any of this were simple!

Your blog is off to a great start – I found it via WP’s tag surfer feature, and am looking forward to more entries.